Lumina Foundation president Jamie Merisotis ’86, Brown admission dean James Miller, policy expert Sandy Baum and economists David Feldman and Robert Archibald gathered at Bates in fall 2011 to debunk the conventional wisdom that college costs are out of control.

1. College costs are proportionate to the considerable benefits of a higher education, but schools need better measurements of learning. “We need to shape the accountability movement rather than be shaped by it,” Feldman said.

2. Systemic factors beyond the control of colleges drive costs. Similar to such industries as healthcare and legal services, higher education is delivered by highly educated/skilled professionals whose high salaries are determined by the market.

3. College degree-holders take home about 84 percent more compensation than non-degreed workers. Two-thirds of all positions created in the next decade will require at least a bachelor’s.

4. Colleges spend huge sums on areas like travel, technology and financial aid to create a microcosm of the real world that their graduates will enter. Such expenditures don’t drive productivity, yet are essential to quality and value.

College Quote

“ Without a college degree, there’s a very good chance you’re going to be poor.” — Lumina Foundation president Jamie Merisotis ’86

College Facts

Bates accepted 25 percent of applicants this spring, a college record for selectivity.

Applicants base their essays on a part of the Bates mission statement.

The average principal of a Bates student’s debt is $18,699 at graduation.

Of the CBB schools, only Bates has a multifaith chaplaincy.

]]>http://www.bates.edu/news/2012/06/15/bates-in-brief-college-symposium-takeaways/feed/0Chronicle of Higher Education quotes thought-leader Merisotis '86 on rankingshttp://www.bates.edu/news/2010/09/02/chronicle-merisotis-rankings/
http://www.bates.edu/news/2010/09/02/chronicle-merisotis-rankings/#commentsThu, 02 Sep 2010 17:41:39 +0000http://home.bates.edu/?p=34919The Chronicle of Higher Education‘s Richard Kahlenberg discusses a new book by Ben Wildavsky, former education editor at U.S. News and World Report, that analyzes the proliferation of college rankings vis-a-vis the now-global competition for the best students. The book, The Great Brain Race: How Global Universities Are Reshaping the World, includes quotes from higher-education thought leader Jamie Merisotis ’86, a Bates Trustee and president of the Lumina Foundation, who tells Wildavsky that “rankings are popular [because] that they actually serve a purpose.” Rankings, Merisotis says, “are basically reflecting the market’s desire for more information.” The Chronicle‘s Kahlenberg points to ever-more-useful rankings, like Washington Monthly‘s, that evaluate colleges by their contribution to the public good, in areas like social mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students) and service (encouraging students to give back). Here, Bates ranks 19th in the country and in the top 10 for service to the Lewiston-Auburn community. View story from The Chronicle of Higher Education, Aug. 23, 2010.
]]>http://www.bates.edu/news/2010/09/02/chronicle-merisotis-rankings/feed/0Indianapolis Star publishes personal essay by Merisotis '86http://www.bates.edu/news/2010/06/03/indianapolis-star-publishes-personal-essay-by-merisotis-86/
http://www.bates.edu/news/2010/06/03/indianapolis-star-publishes-personal-essay-by-merisotis-86/#commentsThu, 03 Jun 2010 18:48:27 +0000http://home.bates.edu/?p=27519In a personal essay for The Indianapolis Star, Jamie Merisotis ’86, a Bates trustee who heads the Lumina Foundation for Education, talked about his experiences paying for college. As a Bates senior, he got up at 3:30 a.m. to deliver newspapers for a distributor. “I remember being a little embarrassed about the fact I was an adult and still had a paper route, so if anyone asked, I just told them I was in journalism,” he wrote. What made a great financial difference, he says, is taking “advantage of every financial aid program I could. Pell grants, state scholarships, student loans, work study — you name it, I applied for it and got it.” The Lumina Foundation for Education, based in Indianapolis, is the nation’s largest private foundation focused on improving college access and success. View story from The Indianapolis Star, May 2, 2010.
]]>http://www.bates.edu/news/2010/06/03/indianapolis-star-publishes-personal-essay-by-merisotis-86/feed/0Leading to changehttp://www.bates.edu/news/2008/07/01/leading-to-change/
http://www.bates.edu/news/2008/07/01/leading-to-change/#commentsTue, 01 Jul 2008 19:27:54 +0000http://batesviews.net/?p=5760

President Hansen has convened two Presidential Symposia, in 2007 and 2008, around issues of diversity and changing U.S. demographics.

In May 2007 and 2008, I convened a Presidential Symposium focusing on issues related to diversity and inclusiveness, values that define, inspire, and challenge Bates. This year, members of the Bates campus community were joined by current and former Trustees, alumni, and visitors from around the region to welcome Morris Dees, founder and chief trial lawyer of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Reflecting the symposium’s theme, “Unswerving Values, Changing Times,” Dees used personal narrative to explain his deep faith in the power of love and justice to break down barriers in U.S. society that still divide us. “The march for justice…didn’t end when slavery was abolished, when women got the right to vote or when gays and lesbians obtained more rights,” Dees said. “The march for justice continues today.”

Dees and the SPLC continue to seek legal redress against all forms of discrimination and to help U.S. educators teach respect and understanding in the classroom. In recent years, their researchers and investigators traveled the country to “take the temperature” of society vis-à-vis issues of prejudice, racism, and hate crimes. “Universally,” said Dees, “people were saying, ‘We are better than that. These people committing these acts: they don’t represent us.’ We found people reaching out to victims of hate and intolerance and prejudice and saying…‘We want you to be a part of us, and we want to be a part of you.'”

Dees’ personal message built on the theme of last year’s inaugural symposium, “A College for ‘Coming Time': Diversity and Changing Demographics in Higher Education.” Our 2007 speakers were Trustee Jamie Merisotis ’86, founder of the Institute for Higher Education Policy and recently appointed president of the Lumina Foundation, and Blenda Wilson, former president and CEO of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation. The coming demographic changes that they discussed are profound.

In the next decade, the country’s population will continue to shift west and south, moving away from the Northeast. Many regions, and especially New England — Bates’ primary “market” since 1855 — will see a significant decline in white high school graduates. Hispanics, African Americans, and other population groups who currently have less access to higher education will increase significantly.

America’s demographics are changing, and we welcome the opportunity this gives us to continue fulfilling the promise of Oren Cheney, our forward-looking founder who dreamt of educating young people who did not have easy access to higher education in his day. As our campus fosters diversity broadly defined, all present and future students benefit.

Morris Dees (left) talks with President Hansen before his keynote address in the Chapel. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen

Our Presidential Symposia are part of an initiative focused on the student experience before, during, and after life at Bates. In the early stages of this initiative, we have seen promising results in recruiting and matriculating record numbers of students from underrepresented racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups. In the alumni arena, this fall’s Homecoming program, “Faces of Bates Across the Decades,” on Oct. 25, will be a day for alumni and students of color to make and strengthen connections.

Given our legacy and our determination today, Bates is well-positioned to play a leadership role in realizing the educational value of diversity.

At Bates, in the curriculum and in campus life, challenging the intellect and respecting the person are equally valued. We are a tight-knit community, but we also treasure the capacity and courage to disagree frankly.

At Bates, we are close but not close-minded. We have shown ourselves willing at important times to be agents of change.

At Bates, we have never been cursed with an overwhelming sense of our own entitlement. Yet we can take great pride in the accomplishments of the many Bates alums who become leaders in their fields, including those who toil both inside and outside the limelight to improve society’s well-being.

While the tactics we employ to enhance diversity and inclusion will continue to change over time, our goals will not. At Bates, we seek excellence that is not elitist or self-serving. We seek to provide an education that prepares highly promising young minds from all backgrounds to work, to lead, to solve problems and to serve in the richly diverse and ever-changing world.

By Elaine Tuttle Hansen

]]>http://www.bates.edu/news/2008/07/01/leading-to-change/feed/0Seminar Series addresses "Entrepreneurship as Service"http://www.bates.edu/news/2000/01/11/entrepreneurship-service/
http://www.bates.edu/news/2000/01/11/entrepreneurship-service/#commentsTue, 11 Jan 2000 20:27:59 +0000http://home.bates.edu/?p=20933Executive directors from local nonprofit organizations and a national educational institute will discuss “Entrepreneurship as Service” at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 21, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives. The presentation is part of The Bates Seminar Series in Entrepreneurship, and public is invited to attend free of charge.

The identification and management of opportunities in social renewal through private and not-for-profit initiatives or community agencies will be carefully reviewed at this meeting. Topics to be explored include how social change, charitable and health and human service organizations share in the entrepreneurial process. Particular attention will be given to the creative and skillful identification of foundation, community, government and corporate involvement for these ventures. Since most service and community enterprises return profits into benefit enhancements, entrepreneurial success for venture developers and managers in these areas also will be investigated.

Aimed at both students and community members, the Bates Seminar Series in Entrepreneurship is an integrated set of lectures and presentations covering the entrepreneurial process, its history and manifestations from conception to implementation of a new venture. The sessions focus on attributes of entrepreneurs, their search and assessment of opportunities and the identification and obtainment of resources that transform ideas into new endeavors. The series exposes the unique ways that the fundamental characteristics of a liberal arts education can be applied in a variety of new enterprises.

The seminar series will rely heavily on Bates alumni, parents and Maine entrepreneurs engaged in a variety of projects, as well as experts and researchers in the field. The next presentation will be “Scientific and Medical Entrepreneurship” at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 11, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives.

For more information, call the Bates College Office of Career Services at 207-786-6232 or check the seminar series on this web site.